P R E S C R I P T I O N   D R U G S

          Rxlist   Created by a hospital pharmacist. This well-respected site contains
        the same drug monographs that appear in Mosby's GenRx.
        In addition to therapeutic information, other useful information is given, such
        as the annual cost of taking the drug and brand names under which the drug
        may be sold in other countries.
        Excellent monographs for patients, in both English and Spanish, are found here.
        You can also identify a pill here by entering its imprint code. There are a small,
        but very good, number of monographs on herbals.

          Drug Facts and Comparison   This highly respected publication, known
        generally only to pharmacists, examines drugs within a particular class -- say,
        antidepressants or calcium channel blockers -- and compares their therapeutic
        action, dosage, precautions, and drug interactions.
        By registering on their site, you may access an abridged version of the
        publication at no cost; access to the complete version is by paid subscription
        only.
        There is a consumer section with good monographs. There is also a drug
        interaction index, as well as drug quizzes for the health professional.

        I L L E G A L   D R U G S

          National Institute on Drug Abuse   This is a nicely designed site with clearly
        marked sections for health professsionals, parents and teachers, and students.
        Includes research reports, statistics, directories of street names for drugs.

          C E S A R (Center for Substance Abuse Research)   Located at the Universitiy
        of Maryland, this site is good for basic information and numerous charts as well as
        statistics.

          Drug Enforcement Administration   This Web site contains a listing of "drugs
        of concern," as well as access schedules of controlled substances and statistics,
        such as the number of meth lab seizures over the last decade.

        H E R B S   /   N A T U R A L   P R O D U C T S

          Longwood Herbal Task Force   This joint effort of Boston's Children Hospital,
        Massachsetts College of Pharmacy and Health Science.
        The Dana Farber Cancer Institute, maintains on of the best herbal Web sites.
        Included are here lengthy monographs that link claims with the scientific evidence
        as well as leaflets for both clinicians and patients.
        Its only drawback is that the number of herbals covered is limited.

          HerbMed   The Alternative Medicine Faoundation, a nonprofit organization
        located in Bethesda, has created this useful database, which contains summaries of
        published studies done with commonly used botanicals, with links to the articles'
        abstracts in PubMed. Adverse effects are linked to the FDA's adverse events reports.

          National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
        This is the part of the National Institute of Health that sponsors research on
        complimentary and alternative medicine.
        At this site, you'll find fact sheets on natural products and also "consensus reports,"
        summaries of conferences that came to conclusions about the use of certain
        alternative medicines.

          I B I D S (International Bibliographic Information on Dietary Suppements)
        This bibliographic database of "published, international scientific literature on
        dietary supplements, including vitamines, minerals, and botanicals."
        You may choose to search the full database of for consumer references or
        peer-reviewed journals only.

          Consumerlabs   One of the difficulties with herbals is that often the product that
        you buy may contain little of the active ingredient. Consumerlabs tests natural products
        to see what they actually contain; some of their results are available for nonsubscribers.

          MEDICAL BOTANY   For those who want to learn about natural products
        themselves, there is a mini-course by James A. Duke, one of the gurus on the use of
        herbals. This site contains his actual lecture notes.

        S T A T I S T I C S

          Drug Topics   Very often students seek statistics on the use or sales of prescription
        drugs. Once a year, a marketing firm, IMS America, does a National Prescription Audit,
        sampling the number of prescriptions per drug. Some of the results can be found on the
        Drug Topics site, a pharmacy trade magazine. Its "Pharmacy Facts and Figures" lists the
        top 200 brand-name and genetic drugs, both by number of prescriptions and by retail
        sales.

          * "Internet Recources" C & RL News, July / August 2001 p701